COMPUTER SCIENTISTS from India

Top 4

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Indian Computer Scientists of all time. This list of famous Indian Computer Scientists is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Sudha Murty (b. 1950)

With an HPI of 47.47, Sudha Murty is the most famous Indian Computer Scientist.  Her biography has been translated into 25 different languages on wikipedia.

Sudha Murty (née Kulkarni; born 19 August 1950) is an Indian educator, author, and philanthropist. She is married to the co-founder of Infosys, N. R. Narayana Murthy. She is the Founder-Chairperson of the non-profit charitable organization Infosys Foundation. In 2024, Murty was nominated as Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha on 8 March 2024 for her contribution to social work and education. Murty was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in India, for social work by the Government of India in 2006. In 2023, she was awarded the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award in India. Sudha Murty began her professional career in computer science and engineering. She is a member of the public health care initiatives of the Gates Foundation. She has founded several orphanages, participated in rural development efforts, supported the movement to provide all Karnataka government schools with computer and library facilities, and established Murty Classical Library of India at Harvard University. Murty is best known for her philanthropy and her contribution to literature in Kannada and English. Dollar Bahu (lit. 'Dollar Daughter-in-Law'), a novel originally authored by her in Kannada and later translated into English as Dollar Bahu, was adapted as a televised dramatic series by Zee TV in 2001. Runa (lit. 'Debt'), a story by Sudha Murty was adapted as a Marathi film, Pitruroon by director Nitish Bhardwaj. Sudha Murty has also acted in the film as well as a Kannada film Prarthana.

2. Raj Reddy (b. 1937)

With an HPI of 44.77, Raj Reddy is the 2nd most famous Indian Computer Scientist.  His biography has been translated into 30 different languages.

Dabbala Rajagopal "Raj" Reddy (born 13 June 1937) is an Indian-American computer scientist and a winner of the Turing Award. He is one of the early pioneers of artificial intelligence and has served on the faculty of Stanford and Carnegie Mellon for over 50 years. He was the founding director of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. He was instrumental in helping to create Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies in India, to cater to the educational needs of the low-income, gifted, rural youth. He was the founding chairman of International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad. He was the first person of Asian origin to receive the Turing Award, in 1994, sometimes known as the Nobel Prize of computer science, for his work in the field of artificial intelligence.

3. Sugata Mitra (b. 1952)

With an HPI of 42.26, Sugata Mitra is the 3rd most famous Indian Computer Scientist.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Sugata Mitra (born 12 February 1952) is an Indian computer scientist and educational theorist. He is best known for his "Hole in the Wall" experiment, and widely cited in works on literacy and education. He is Professor Emeritus at NIIT University, Rajasthan, India. A Ph.D. in theoretical physics, he retired in 2019 as Professor of Educational Technology at Newcastle University in England, after 13 years there including a year in 2012 as visiting professor at MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. He won the TED Prize 2013.

4. Manindra Agrawal (b. 1966)

With an HPI of 26.17, Manindra Agrawal is the 4th most famous Indian Computer Scientist.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Manindra Agrawal (born 20 May 1966) is an Indian computer scientist and director of Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. He is also a professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. He was the recipient of the first Infosys Prize for Mathematics, the Godel Prize in 2006; and the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Mathematical Sciences in 2003. He has been honoured with Padma Shri, India's 4th highest civilian award, in 2013.